Rove: Obama's 'Smarmy, Prissy' Slap Helped Clinton

Rove: Obama's 'Smarmy, Prissy' Slap Helped Clinton
By Terence P. Jeffrey
CNSNews.com Editor in Chief
January 09, 2008
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=/Politics/archive/200801/POL20080109e.html


(CNSNews.com) - Karl Rove told Cybercast News Service in an interview Wednesday that Sen. Hillary Clinton's New Hampshire campaign was helped when she responded in a smiling, self-deprecating manner when asked during Saturday night's televised debate why some voters had an issue with her "likeability" and that her rival Sen. Barack Obama only enhanced the positive impact for Clinton when he responded like "a smarmy, prissy little guy taking a slap at her." (Listen here)

Rove said he also believes Clinton's now-famous emotional moment in a Portsmouth, N.H., coffee shop helped turn her campaign around.

"She benefited from two moments that helped humanize her and caused people to remember the positive things about her rather than have Democrats dwell on the concerns they had about her," the former top White House advisor told Cybercast News Service.

"One of them was in the debate, where she got the question about ... the fact people don't like you, and rather than being petulant and angry she responded with a smile on her face and a laugh, saying that hurt her feelings, then said I'll try and push on somehow. Then that moment was, I think, made even better for her by the fact that Barack Obama, who was having a mediocre night in my opinion, rather than keeping his mouth shut proceeded to say, 'They like you well enough.' So, he looked like a smarmy, prissy little guy taking a slap at her. I think that helped her."

Rove, whom President Bush cited as "the architect" of his victorious 2004 reelection campaign, said of Clinton's emotional moment in the coffee shop: "Now, look, I know there is a lot of controversy on this. It says something about the peoples' concern about Hillary Clinton that we are having a debate as to whether or not that was a real moment. But I think it is a real moment. And I think a lot of people look at it, and particularly Democrats, who said, you know, I may have a concern about her. I'm really concerned about whether we're-you know, she is calculating everything. And that was one moment where if you saw it or heard about it, it was hard not to think that was a real moment. I think those two things helped her."

In the Saturday night debate hosted by ABC News and WMUR-TV, Scott Spradling of WMUR asked Clinton: "What can you say to the voters of New Hampshire on this stage tonight who see a resume and like it, but are hesitating on the likability issue, where they seem to like Barack Obama more?"

A smiling Clinton elicited laughter from the audience, when she responded: "Well, that hurts my feelings. ... But I'll try to go on."

"He's very likable," she then said about Obama. "I agree with that. I don't think I'm that bad."

To this, Obama, while looking down at his notes, said: "You're likable enough, Hillary."

must be using those special poll numbers he used in 06.

She actually lost her huge lead in New Hampshire. This was barely a 'win' for her. Considering that the Northeast is the best geographical area for her, Hillary did not do well.

As I walk my precinct for Edwards and talk to voters, I find that Hillary mostly gets a lot of votes from women who mistakenly think that Hillary will do a good job simply because she is a woman. When I point out that Margaret Thatcher was also a woman, the better informed women gasp a bit. I hope I am starting them to reconsider their assumptions.

From a Tory perspective Margaret Thatcher was a great Prime Minister... She was followed by her hand picked successor, John Major...Since then the Tory's have not been able to recapture power...

Like her or not she was also viewed as a strong leader...When Saddam invaded Kuwait it was Margaret Thatcher who gave Bush Pere his spine, " George, this is no time to go wobbly."

facts are facts and you can't really spin them.

Jeebus.

Soon I'll be eating at the Olive Garden and LIKING IT!!!

They had front-loaded the machines in October, they just didn't put enough fake votes into them.

She got hit with a harsh question about likability.

She handled it with grace. He defended her as well.

Those who want to pretend he attacked her are showing real insincerity.

He did not look up, he did not smile. He said it short and almost as if he were irritated. I think that his response could be taken more than one way.

Did you mean to post this at freeperville?

here is audio link- http://www.cnsnews.com/cns/audio/2008/010908Rove6.wav

She's (male or female) not fit to be President.

Obama does have, but did not show in this case, a wry wit....it was cruelty with plausible deniability.
Rove is Salivating for Obama to get the nomination so that he can EAT OBAMA ALIVE....Oh, and Rove should still STFU and Die.

Give me a break.

But perhaps it's ghastly that we let THAT (racist undertones) man pick on "our girl?"

This time, there's no backing off, HRC can't have it both ways, i.e., both First Lady and Presidential treatment. :thumbsdown:

How does it feel when potential undertones of predjudice is thrown back your way?

But perhaps it's ghastly that we let THAT (racist undertones) man pick on "our girl?"

This time, there's no backing off, HRC can't have it both ways, i.e., both First Lady and Presidential treatments. :thumbsdown:

and we know why she showed her feelings.

Fatigue and a relentless schedule. Constant personal attacks. Snyde comments from all over the media.

Today on Colbert, Mike Taibi said hearing that HRC won NH he felt like being told he had a melanoma. WTF??? STFU!

And that very day two newspapers published nasty-ugly front page head lines selecting the most disrespectful photos to mock her- hey she is running for the top office in the land and does not deserve the sh*t being thrown at her personally.

Nice the repugs can split us right along our strengths- racial and sexual equality can be turned around to divide us.

Give us time we can f*c* up this election too. How does Pres. McCain sound? keep it up and keep devouring oursleves and we are lost.

around here who think like rove.

It's like attacking the shy girl in class for having glasses.

admit it.

But his personal antipathy toward Hillary was too deep for him to hide.

Just like Obama was gracious to Biden in the debate over the "clean" comment, Obama was softening the blow of the nastiness just dealt Hillary by the moderator who told her nobody liked her.

I thought it was a friendly tease, classic Obama. Nothing caustic about it at all. And now we're supposed to take Karl Rove's word on Hillary Clinton and Dem politics. Buchanan was absolutely giddy that Obama was being beaten. Their only hope is Hillary.

Zogby said the RW ideologues (AKA: neocons) want Hillary to win. They believe she will keep the war going. I'm afraid they might be right.

;)

It was a classless, cocky remark. Markos of Daily Kos said that it cost Obama 2 to 3 percentage points in NH, and he's right.

I'm just hoping that his defeat brings both him and his wife back down to earth. They're going to have to work hard to win this thing. There will be no coronations. It's going to take more than 'change, change' however inspiringly delivered.

All you people insisting he was attacking her are showing how insincere Clinton's base of support is.

He was coming to her defense.

The question was harsh. She handled it with grace. He backed her up.

Get real.

GGGGGGGGgggggggeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I really admire Shirley Chisolm. She caught hell for her gender and her race, and never complained. THAT, is who should have been our first female president, not this perpetual victim in distress. Chisolm, like Obama, received death threats and was disrespected throughout her campaging. To see a weak male identified phony like Hillary use white female victimhood to secure her election victories is not worthy of respect. Hillary is one woman who wil never get my vote.

RIP Shirley.

Give me a break.

If she's crying over how "hard" it is beacause people don't buy the fact that she's running on her husband's record, I doubt that she's facing more pressing issues and looking over her shoulder at every turn like Chisolm was.

She's playing the priviledged white woman victim card and it disgusts me.

Obama says she's "likeable enough" and people are in an uproar. Poor white woman. She calls him a drug dealer and it's perfectly fine and not racist at all. Innocent white woman.

Know what? Give me a break.

Hope you don't mind if I file that line? :yourock:

Yeah, perhaps I should have told my "Sergeant Airborne" in 1979 (one of the first group of women cadets to be accepted into the Army's Infantry Airborne School), "Please don't yell or say anything mean to me, because I'm a lady." :rofl:

The gloves are off and HRC better learn how to turn off the water-works when it comes down to emitting tears JUST for "a mild bruising" to her political ambitious ego. There's absolutely no sense of magnanimity in such self-serving actions.

:sarcasm:

:crazy:

Shame on him for not coddling the poor white lady! She's gonna cry now!

but was the original question something like the voters "don't believe you're likable enough" to hillary, then Obama responded to that original question by saying she was "likable enough"? I think the context could explain that issue, but of course in politics context can get muddied to allow others to take political advantage.

the snarky slug-fest Democratic debates of years past? We WAIT for moments like this.. those unscripted cuts and jabs. "You're no Jack Kennedy" easily comes to mind and a dozen others I don't have the energy to type out.

But I guess everybody has to tiptoe now, because there's a woman in the race and she might get her feelings hurt, or the man might seem to be bullying?? Especially a ::gasp::: black man. Are you freakin kidding me??

Where are all those hypocrits who think Hillary should be treated no differently because she's a woman?

What kind of sexism is that? And when did we start quoting Karl Rove? Oh, I forgot.. when the Clintons started running their campaign like one of his operations.

Flame away.

She isn't fit to lick Shirley Chisolm's heels.

BTW, Hillary plays off of white victimhood and racial fears about black men. She's a pig and so is anyone who defends that kind of deep bigotry.

oops double post

Not calling you a bigot (I'm staying out of that)... but she really did make a valid point. You can NOT explain bigotry to bigots. That is a fallacy, if they THOUGHT what they were doing was bigotry than they would not be bigots. Therefore, it is not something she can be expected to explain if she truly thought that you were a bigot. (again not calling you one myself... just explaing where she was coming from)

That's a bit like the freepers thinking we DUers are elite snobs and unemployed layabouts at the same time.

Every one of the candidates will play any card available to them. I certainly don't think any of them have a monopoly on doing that. Attributing that trait to just one candidate seems disingenuous at best, and naive at worst.

we should pay attention to ANYTHING this asshole says is the minute we should stop and take a breather.

I think the "tears," such as they were (or weren't) were genuine. I also don't think Obama meant anything by what he said.

And I really THINK we should ignore anything Rove says about our candidates.

the Dems. Putting together opposition research no doubt. No one should ever underestimate the evil that is Karl Rove.

Look at that name calling on Obama.

Coulter tried to do the same thing to Edwards.

Emasculate someone on the world's stage.

Rove is helping Hillary. Rove has always been on her side, speaking fondly
about her--right along with Gingrich and the rest of the Republicans who declared
her our nominee long ago.

Gosh, why don't the Hillary people wake up and understand that some Democrats
have joined the upper echelon of the neocon elite, and Hillary is one of them.

How can anyone explain this any other way?

Rove just helped Hillary, by painting her opponent in a horrendous light.

Can it be any more obvious?

I feel like I see my country slipping away, with every step forward her candidacy takes.

If Karl Rove had just leveraged my candidate, by slashing another Dem--I would be highly
suspicious. I hope others will think about this very deeply, and be suspicious as well.

disgraceful.

she handled the question with grace. he defended her.


now all these pundits are using it to trash obama, and the hillary supporters are showing they'll get on board with all the nasty smearing.

son of a bitch needs to think about the fact that he may be looking at the federal correctional system from the business end. My mother raised a lady but I cannot contain my disgust.

This place really has gone nuts.

therefor Rove has concluded that Obama is the Repugs choice as the weakest candidate. Like or not thats the facts. Rove is insane he is not stupid.

But this is an exception! Beware of Rovevellia.

:nuke:

Although in this case I have to agree with him. It was one more thing that put me off Obama.

How could it be construed that Hillary played any card? The media has been flogging this relentlessly and Gibson tried to humiliate her at the debate with his question. She has been on the defensive about this.

(Is Rove ever going to get the freak lost? I knew he would still be the main operative but thought he would stay behind the scenes.)

that home in that part of Florida known as South Alabama during 2002. i would like someone to ask him that, don't you want to know?:)

another? :eyes: As I've mentioned before, I live within the beltway and those political power elites are "spittling a gut" laughing into their caviar at the thought of manipulating us.

Wake up folks, HRC, the DLC, the RNC and our "illustrious" corporate media are joking about us lowly "chattering classes." They hold NO RESPECT for those who don't have at least $300,000 of chump change to invest in Wall Street.

The only possibility for change, IMO, is through an Obama/Edwards ticket.

I know Edwards is highly intelligent, populist and has no love lost for HRC and her smarmy DLC machine.

IF ONLY Edwards and Obama could "make nice" and come together as a team we could see bi-partisanship and true change within the "old guard" political power players. However, if "The Clintons" get elected, look forward to 8 more years of a DLC staffed Executive branch, bought and paid for by the mega-corporations.

such infighting... and as long as we stand face to face, we don't stand shoulder to shoulder.

soirees. The "old guard" politicos (BOTH PARTIES!) need to receive a wake-up call that the people WILL NOT STAND to have The Middle Classes gutted by further corporate greed and media consolidation into FASCISM. But alas, I fear that these bastards (and bitches) are far too entrenched. :(

is an exaggeration meant to remake the past...
Coming from Rove, this definition of cruelty is so ironic it defies the laws of physics...
From callers on Randi - I understood some NH women dislike the 2 men ganing on Hillary - that's when they starting calling each other. Nothing about anyone's cruelty - unless you consider the media's exploitation.
Please, don't take anything from the Turd Blossom.

He's good at it. Anyone who can turn a complete moron in to a two term president, knows his stuff

Don't even get me started. It wouldn't be pretty. What I feel for that cynical, calculating bastard isn't fit for print.

STFU is way too kind, IMHO.

Rover never does or says anything without a political calculation or agenda behind it.

The repukes want her with a passion. Rove will be back if she gets the nomination

eom

no wonder she won when the polls said otherwise. (sarcasm)

Does what any freeper would do here. In 2004 we had a few who posed as Dean supporters and attacked everyone - just to enjoy the havoc.

Especially the smarmy part. Hey, KKKarl... go crawl back under your rock.

:rofl:

.....he'd be a perfect dick.

:insert that debate photo of him sneering at Hillary:

Damn, one needs wings to rise above this vapid "perpetual damsel in distress" tripe. :eyes:

How further down the long road toward the Whitehouse do you think you'll get by squealing "RACISM!!" every time someone doesn't praise Obama?

and gives more points to Obama as far as my support. I am undecided as far as who to vote for but Rove being negative to Obama and sort of giving kudos to Clinton makes me wonder. Perhaps he wants Clinton to get the nod since she might be easier to attack and defeat.

....he believes that Obama will be the best candidate for the Repukes to defeat blah blah blah.

The GOP desperately want Hillary rather than somebody like Obama.

Obviously Rove is going to push an argument that implies Obama is a lowlife compared to Hillary's grace.


Obama's comment was actually mild flattery of Clinton, for those of us paying attention and objective. He was coming to her defense, not attacking her.

Especially from their opponents. I do think the question about likability was unfair in the context of a televised debate. And I'm an Obama supporter. That said, Obama could have phrased his response better. Oh, and Rove should STFU.

I wouldn't be surprised.

Is this how you want to win?

BO was playing dirty as early as June '07.
http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/jun/15/obama_campaign_circulating_negative_story_about_bill_clinton
Am I tired of dirty politics? Like the rumor about Richardson Obama started in Iowa the day before the caucus? You bet I am.

I'm not saying I necessarily believe any of this, but the disparity between the polls and the actual outcome, the fact that it was New Hampshire (wasn't that the state where the Republicans pulled the phone jamming scam in 2002?), and the fact the Rove is offering up plausible sounding reasons for a HRC victory, causes me to at least consider that the Republicans could've pulled something in New Hampshire.

Although it's a Democratic primary, is it so far-fetched to think the Republicans wouldn't try to fix it to their liking if they could? An HRC nomination allows them to play every Vince Foster, Travelgate, Clenis card ad nauseum until November.

This isn't a slam on Hillary, by the way. Just trying to think like a Repug here.

They were all saying he'd get mid-30s, and he got 36%.

Don't play into his web. Rise above racism just as Obama does. Act as he acts and all will work out fine.

Who said it FIRST in recent days. A little late to the party, isn't he?